In the current book two of the most prolific authors in the area of Medieval Judeo-Arabic and poetic Hebrew Medieval texts go back to its basic theses on the relations between Hebrew literature and its parallel Arabic and Judeo-Arabic texts. By re-establishing an up-to-date picture they are attacking the field of encounters from new and different angles.

This collection of papers in Hebrew and Semitic linguistics is the English pendant to the Hebrew volume. The nucleus of this collection is formed by researches into the history of Biblical Hebrew. They deal with details, yet the introduction, entitled "On the History and Structure of Hebrew", especially written for this publication, fits them into the general frame. It is to be hoped that this collection will convey to scholars, something more than the mere sum of the various publications, and that the indices will enable the reader to find his wish more easily. Sample pages A digital version of this book is available here

These papers, in main deal with Medieval Judaeo-Arabic, the linguistic tool of Jewish culture in Arab lands, one of the apogees of Jewish culture in general. It reflects a variety of Middle Arabic, in which Classical Arabic Neo-Arabic and pseudo-correct features alternate. This ancient Neo-Arabic constitutes the missing link between Classical Arabic and the modern Arabic dialects. Some of the early Judaeo-Arabic documents are spelt in a hebraicized spelling, rather than in standard Judaeo-Arabic orthography.